teaching child to read

[Satellite]

Has anyone tried either of the following methods to teach your child to read?

1. Glenn Doman - by sight
2. Sidney Ledson - by phonics

Any comments on them?

Where do you get the materials from? Only came across the sidney ledson book, not the materials.

I am teaching dd using the Oxford Reading Tree phonics method. Well ish - not a slave to it. I haven't heard of the other 2 I'm afraid, but dd is coming along nicely.

I tried Doman when my daughter was about 8 months. I made the materials myself, not least because we were reading in French and Doman's published materials (as well as being inflexible) are in English. Besides, Doman advises you to make them yourself so you can tailor them to the child.

I put the programme on hold (planning to restart on her second birthday in a couple of weeks time) because I got a lot of negative flak on here - I tried to ignore it but it wears you down. Then one woman said that it had worked for her as a child, but a bit too well, and she had felt left out at school. Plus my daughter, while tolerant, didn't seem as excited as Glen said she would be ...

Hence decision to put it off till she was two, but am definitely going to try again because both the method and the thinking behind it seem sound.

I'm using Headsprout with dd. She can already read well in Italian (she's 6 and started Italian primary in Sept) I left off the English reading for a while as Italian is much more straightforward, but we've gone back to Headsprout now.

I've noticed that since ds has learnt to read in Italian, he's been able to read more English words.

Sorry for the slight hijack - was wondering about this myself today, but DS is only 2.2yo. What sort of age can you start using these methods?

I've noticed that to Franca, I think the fluency in reading French has boosted his self confidence in reading English.

Pure, I think you need to let your child guide you. I felt with mine it was quite obvious when were and weren't enthusiastic.

I started with letter recognition about 3, then did a bit of Jolly Phonics and then Oxford Reading Tree.

thanks - 2 is obviously far too early for him, as he just doesn't have the attention span. I might have a look at the Oxford Reading tree though after seeing this thread.

I've started using the Oxford Reading Tree with DS (3.5) and he can read the first four or five books in the series, although I'm not sure how much he's actually reading and how much he's memorised (though he definitely knows a lot of the words as he can read them in other contexts). I wouldn't normally have considered starting that early but I'd already bought the books for DD2 and then decided they were a bit easy for her so thought I'd try them out on DS and he loves them.
DD1 didn't learn to read until she started school at 6; she wasn't really interested before then and I didn't force the issue as it's quite unusual for children here in Austria to be able to read before they start school. DD2, on the other hand, decided she wanted to learn to read at the same time as DD1 and was reading quite fluently in English and German at around 4.5 - I didn't use any particular method/books though. I've always read a lot to her in English, DH less so in German but her reading level is about the same in both languages. DD1 still struggles with her reading a little (although that's partly to do with dyslexia-related problems) and I now wish I'd made more of an effort to help her learn to read before she started school (we did try Jolly Phonics but didn't get very far with it).
I haven't heard of either of the methods mentioned, but have found teaching my DCs to learn to read by sight more successful than phonics on the whole.

Doman's method is for all ages but is actually modelled on 2 year olds, I think.

oh, that's interesting [goes off to google]

I don't think there's anything wrong with teaching a child to read "early" (and here, 5 is considered early) provided they're interested, but I've had a few negative comments about the fact that DD2 is "already" (at 5.5) reading - along the lines of "but she'll be bored at school if she can already read". Not sure what I was supposed to do - hide all her books from her?! I don't dare tell anyone that DS is already learning to read too...

We use the doman method to teach chinese. Works well as long as you are willing to be flexible and relaxed and patient. Both started on-and-off from about 1. Also use doman method for writing. Very enlightening. And works too if you are relaxed and patient.

"but she'll be bored at school if she can already read". Surely that's the school's worry, not the parent's? Perhaps we should also avoid playing any sports with our children so as not to spoil the secondary school games teacher's lesson plan in 6 years' time!

I'm beginning to be more relaxed about telling people that I teach the DC to read chinese now that they are a bit older. But I've never told school or nursery about it. Don't know why. None of their business, I guess.

Don't mean things will work if patient etc, just that the method requires flexibility and a rethinking of "traditional" approaches. At least I've had to question the methods by which I was taught to read and write, which is no bad thing ...

Tried to teach ds1 with home made books about him with photos and sketches but he just didn't want to know. Still got a first class degree 17 years later. Only try it if your child enjoys it.

MIFLAW - sorry you got flak. People shouldn't judge others and impose their views on them...there are definitely more than one way to do things in life.

From where I am come from (Singapore), it is considered a good thing if a child is ahead of the others in school. I'm sure there might be some issue if a child is bored but it would soon even out as the years go by.

Anyway, different strokes for different folks.

I will look into the Oxford phonics tree to see what it is about. I definitely prefer the phonics method as that is how I learned and it seems to have worked well. (I can see why the Glenn Doman method will work well with Mandarin as that is all memorisation of characters )I forgot to mention that I'm talking about teaching English, not a second language.

Have been lurking as in my Amazon basket are the Jolly Phonics and I think I might add the Oxford reading tree as well. DD ( 3.10) is showing lots of interest in letters in English and numbers in Italian so was wondering where to start . I was taught the old fashion version so was unsure on what to do....

Thanks for support, Satellite. TBH the flak itself didn't stop me. It just wore me down so that, when someone came up with the first GOOD reason for not doing it, I was too easily persuaded. Will definitely try again.

Should have been clear - French for us is not a "second" language as such - it is her minority language in a bilingual upbringing. Receptively, at least (which obviously reading is) her French is probably at a similar level to her English.

For anyone thinking of starting reading in English, Headsprout interactive reading (on the web) is brilliant. Dd has the ORT books, but tbh, the stories are so bloody boring and twee (think jazzed up Janet and John but not much better) that she wasn't "getting" the reading.

Following Moondog's advice (IIRC she has researched this area academically,) dd took off with reading like I would never have imagined.

You get 3 or 4 free lessons on the website, so well worth looking at even if you don't then buy the course.

Rosa- I left the English alone after dd started school in September as the non-phonic-ness of English compared to the phonic regularity of Italian was sending us into complete trauma...I wished I'd done more while she was still younger, maybe got the English done and dusted earlier.

Hey Bucharest, that's great news!
So pleased for you!

T'is thanks to your advice in grand part m'dear!

As a PFB PMM aside, dd was at my SIL's yesterday while I was at work, and SIL was amazed that dd's reading is better than her son's (8) (dd is 6) She was v and not a little when I told her it was all down to a website with spacerockets.....

The evidence shows that kids with english as a second language really benefit from a phonic approach (rather than whole word reading - which is what Oxford Reading Tree tradtionally did). ORT have more recently have brought out some more phonic based books but they are not particualarly phonic.
The point about phonics is that it really helps with spelling as well as reading because kids learn the code that they will need for reading.

There are some other options Phonic books(Dandelion reader and Talisman)(Disclosure: My mum is a founder of tthis company). Talisman are aimed at older readers.

There is loads of info on reading on their blog www.phonicbooks.wordpress.com.

Another scheme I have heard is good is jelly and bean.

It is interesting what you say about kids learning from the computer. I am convinced that my son learnt to read fluently by playing animal crossing on the Wii!

After reading Moondog's posts I've also tried Headsprout with ds (who'll be 6 in March) and although we're only a few lessons in, it's been great and ds is motivated to do it whereas, although he loves books, he was never interested in having me "teach" him to read.

I had been going to wait and let him learn German at school first, given that German is easy to read and English is not, but I wanted to have an idea now of how difficult ds might find it to read. He has some difficulty with making various sounds and am told that this will mean he will find it difficult to read. Personally, knowing ds, I'm not convinced and I think he can hear the differences between sounds even if he cannot say them, so I wanted to try some reading and see how he got on.

Hehe! Fantastic ladies.
Made my day!